Check out our interview with Circulus Agtech co-founder David Leroux as he joins our cohort at WCEF in Brussels!
What motivated you and your co-founders to start Circulus Agtech?
I have a background in chemical engineering, waste management and fermentation, so I am really passionate about what to do with waste and noticed that greenhouses and large fields did not consume nutrients coming from organic waste, and that was a big issue I consistently uncovered.
I started to look into alternatives to fossil fuel-based fertilizers to support sustainable food systems. To create these alternatives, we found a process that extracts nutrient value to make it stable and easy to use. This process was applied to my research project in resource engineering at McGill, and we embarked on a field trip to extract nutrients from a chicken egg farm in the northwest territories. Unfortunately, the funding for that project was cut. However, that same process was applied to my research project in resource management, and we pitched our idea at the Dobson Cup, to turn our project into a business model.
Now, Circulus Agtech works with various organic waste fertilizers to see how we can link those two problems.
What are some challenges you are facing while scaling your start-up?
Agriculture is probably the most interesting field to deploy this technology, but also one of the most challenging because farmers have very little risk tolerance. We go through very rigorous testing of our products and services, but the interest that we generate overcomes these risks, as farmers are really interested in our services and how we can get into their systems as fast as possible. There is also this notion of economies of scale, either in food production or in fertilizer or waste management, so our business needs to be scaled – it is a challenge.
We are also working very strategically to choose the right partners, so we invest a lot of time, energy and effort in our partnerships, to make sure our projects will be viable in the long term and profitable for everyone. So, choosing the right strategic partnerships has been a great challenge for us.
How did the Dobson Centre play a role in Circulus Agtech as we know it today?
After we participated in the Dobson Cup, we sold our first hydroponic system and found a way to extract new nutrients. Then the X-1 Accelerator helped us refine our business model and see how to fit our value proposition in different sectors. Harnessing non-diluted money was very helpful because we were then able to secure public funding, but we needed private cash to leverage it; so, the Dobson Center helped us secure this cash and collaborate with higher experts to ensure our projects were executed correctly. Overall, The Dobson Centre really helped us in getting a minimum viable product.
Who would be an ideal partner or collaborator for Circulus Agtech?
There are two ideal partners, the first one being larger fertilizer companies that want to diversify their service offering to promote nutrient recycling instead of new nutrient to be consumed at all times.
The other ideal partner is a larger wastewater tech provider, because we use equipment that is essentially water equipment that we adapt for our own needs. Partnering with a wastewater tech provider will enable us to execute projects faster and better.
What are you most excited about for WCEF in Brussels?
Coming from Canada we have witnessed challenges in terms of pollution, consumption and waste management; but the challenges in Europe are even bigger. Since the seasons are longer, they consume and produce more waste. The land is more limited, so resource optimization and agriculture are challenges we want to tackle with European partners.
I am very excited to connect with like-minded people internationally and learn from sessions on topics such as sustainable food systems.
Circulus Agtech
Circulus Agtech is based in Montreal Canada where all the founders studied at McGill University in different programs within the Faculty of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences. While working on a Poultryponics project for their Masters and PhD, David and Peter studied the use of chicken manure to produce liquid organic fertilizer for hydroponics. Inspired by Aquaponics, the team created the company Cannafish, to produce liquid organic fertilizer for the greenhouse industry.
